Linode

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I like to use my Linode to help with my development. I can easily spin up servers and environments to build out and test projects

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Gaming server, build your own VPN, Git server, Wordpress, could be anything.

Their CloudManger makes the setup and management of your servers a breeze.

Get started on Linode today with a $100 in free credit for listeners of Maccast. You can find all the details at linode.com/maccast

Linode has 11 global data centers and provides 24/7/365 human support with no tiers or hand-offs regardless of your plan size. In addition to shared and dedicated compute instances, use your $100 in credit on S3-compatible object storage, Managed Kubernetes, and more.

Visit  linode.com/maccast and click on the “Create Free Account” button to get started.

Apple’s M1 continues to impress

We already discussed that Geekbench single core score beat every other Intel Mac that Apple has made to date

In multi-core the M1 systems rank 13th behind Mac Pro, iMac Pro, and iMac models going back to late 2019

From Tom’s Hardware, GFXBench 5.0 benchmarks were tested under Apple's Metal API, and show that the M1 often performs better than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 560

These are older discreet GPUs and the GFXBench 5.0 tests are mainly used to benchmark mobile devices.

Not much is known about Apple’s integrated 8-core GPU

Apple says it can handle 25,000 threads simultaneously and that it’ll deliver 2.6 teraflops

What about “real world” performance

M1 MacBook Pro did an XCode unzip in 5 minutes vs 13 minutes on an 8-Core Intel i9 16-inch MacBook Pro with 64GB RAM

Near instant opened in the “launch all apps” tests.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider running on an M1 MacBook Air at about 38 FPS and that’s under Rosetta 2

RAM for most things also does not seem to be an issue.

A user the MacRumors forms shared some numbers on the SSD performance in an M1 MacBook Air

The tests seem to confirm Apple’s claim of 2x faster SSD performance

2190 MB/s writes and 2675 MB/s reads vs 1319 MB/s reads and 1007 MB/s writes for the 2019/2020 MacBook Air models

Photoshop will not have an M1 native version until sometime next year, but they did release a beta already

It offers “core” Photoshop features, but is lacking a lot of key features that Adobe claims it will release over the course of the coming weeks

A big missing piece is Camera RAW. Also things like the healing brush, auto-blend layers, etc.

Also comes with a long list of bugs and limitations.

This is not “production” Photoshop

You’ll need an M1 Mac and an Adobe CC subscription.

There has been a hiccup. Users on the MacRumors forums have run into cases where attempting to restore their M1 machines have resulted in a screen stating, “An error occurred preparing the update. Failed to personalize the software update.”

This leave the system non-functional.

Only “fix” it to use a technique with Apple’s Configurator 2 tool and another Mac to get the machines functional again.

May want to be careful about doing a restore until Apple releases a fix.

An analyst at IBM AI thinks the switch to their own Silicon might save Apple as much as $2.5 billion a year

It’s based on a guesstimate of Apple chip production cost running around $40-$50 per chip vs paying around $200 or more for an Intel chip.

Even if he’s underestimating by half it’s still a significant benefit for Apple’s bottom line.

The entire logic board for an M1 Mac is about the size of an iPhone 12

CrossOver 20 appears to mostly be working on the Apple Silicon Macs

At least for some apps and games

They showed off Team Fortress 2, but with some lag

Also ran Among Us, Quicken, and Witcher 3

Emulating through Rosetta, at least using the macOS Big Sur 11.1 betsa which has critical fixes for Rosetta 2

In an interview with Ars Technica, Craig Federighi, indicated that the technologies exist for an Arm-based version of Windows to run on a Mac. Microsoft just has to be willing to license it to users.

Arm Windows supports x86 user mode applications

Apple has a special MacBook Air M1 configuration for education

The 7-core GPU model w/ 8 GB RAM and 128GB of storage for USD $799.00

Apple has listed multiple M1-based Mac mini logic boards with in an internal parts list for Apple Authorized Service Providers.

Looks like for each 1GB logic board there is a matching 10GB one.

Apple’s record Mac Quarter

At it’s last quarterly earning call Apple announced an all-time record for Mac sales

Apple only give revenue figures which were up almost 30 percent year on year at $9.03 billion for Mac

Strategy Analytics provided their estimate numbers for notebooks this week and believes that Apple had a worldwide increase in shipments of 39 percent

They think Apple sold 6 million MacBooks in the quarter, up from 4.3 million in the same period last year.

Oddly, $6 million dollars worth of Apple products were also stolen from a lorry (that’s a truck in American) in the UK back on November 10th.

Even more strange, they were stolen on the M1, the UKs first inter-urban motorway

They transferred the trailer to another truck after they tied up the driver and security guard.

They then transferred 48 pallets of Apple products to another vehicle and got away.

All one hour after Apple’s “One More Thing” event

iPhone 12 mini teardown

iFixit has done their iPhone 12 mini teardown noting some of the differences vs the larger models

Obviously the smaller battery at 8.57Wh, bit that’s bigger then the 6.96 battery in the larger iPhone SE

Smaller versions of the Taptic Engine, speakers, and MagSafe ring

Same cameras as the iPhone 12

Economic Daily News says that Apple has asked Foxconn to start testing foldable iPhone designs

They claim that Apple is hoping for a 2022 release date

Comparing OLED or Micro-LED display technology

They are also supposed to evaluate the folding mechanism for over 100,000 open and closing tests.

Jon Prosser has claimed in the past that Apple has a folding design with two separate displays.

iPhone 12 Pro Max again claims the display crown for Apple

Seems whichever device is “newest” regardless of brand claims the title

Still, DisplayMate says the Super Retina XDR display in the iPhone 12 Pro Max has earned it’s ‘highest ever’ featuring for Smartphone display

Getting an A+ rating and gaining the “Best Smartphone Display Award”

The iPhone 12 Pro Max either matched or set new records for display performance.

The MagSafe Duo Charger will not change at Apple’s full 15 watt rate unless you have a wall Cabernet of at least 27W or higher (at 14W)

The 20W Apple charger will limit it to a rate up to 11W

The MagSafe Duo charger is priced at $129 without a power adapter

Mac Rumors got access to an internal service document noting issues with some iPhone 12 displays exhibiting flickering, a green or gray glow, or other unintended lighting variations under some conditions.

Apple is investigating the issue

Advising repair centers to not fix the phone and tell customers to keep their software up to date.

The issue can affect the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Apple’s web podcast player

Apple now has an web embeddable version of their podcast player

Available through Apple’s [Marketing Tools Website](http://tools.applemediaservices.com/apple-podcasts)

You can play and select episodes all from the embedded player on the site

Includes skip and scrubbing, and displays show notes while playing

It also includes links to open the show or episode in the Podcast app on Mac or iOS

Unfortunately, no chapter support.

Apple reduces App Store fees

At least for the majority of developers

Apple announced a new App Store Small Business Program which lowers the fees for “small business” owners from 30 percent to 15 percent

The new program start in January and developers will need to apply to be in the program

Eligible developers must earn less than $1 million in App Store revenue a year.

Calculated after Apple takes their commission rate

The reduction is valid for app purchases, in-app purchases, and subscriptions

If a participating developers earnings go above $1 million they will be bumped up to the 30 percent rate on remaining purchases for the year.

If they fall below the $1 million revenue for a year they can apply for the reduced rate in the following year.

Apple claims they are making the changes to help small business owners maintain their businesses and accelerate innovation during uncertain times.

Apple returns Peanuts to broadcast TV

Apple had gained the rights to the classic “peanuts” holiday specials and had plans to air them exclusively on Apple TV+

Despite making them available for streaming for free on their service there were some who were angered and even petitioned to get the specials back on “broadcast” TV

Apple heard the cries and has worked out a deal with PBS and PBS Kids to air both "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

The Thanksgiving special will air on November 22nd and the Christmas special on December 13th

Apple still will also make both available on Apple TV+ to subscribers and for non-subscribers they can view them for free on Apple TV+ as well

"A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" will be available on Apple TV+ on November 18, and it will be free for everyone from November 25 to November 27

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" will be available on ‌Apple TV‌+ starting on December 4, and it will be free to watch from December 11 to December 13.

Apple to bring ‘Tetris’ movie to Apple TV+

According to Deadline, Apple has secured to rights for “Tetris: The Movie”

The film will start Taron Everton (Rocktman & Kingsman) and has Stan & Ollie filmmaker Jon S. Baird on board to direct

The film covers the story of Henk Rogers, the Dutch video game designer who first secured the rights to distribute Tetris on consoles, who was was heavily involved in a dispute that arose over the franchise’s copyright in the 1980s

The filming is set to start in early December in Scotland

TextExpander

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TextExpander is available on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, iPad.

Maccast listeners get 20% off their first year.

Visit textexpander.com/podcast to learn more about TextExpander.

Correction on M1 memory

I gave the impression, and maybe even stated, that the memory was part of they SoC

Robert wrote in to, rightly, correct my mistake

Apple M1 Silicon does not have dram memory on chip.

Rather it’s on the same substrate right next to the SoC. In what Apple calls it’s unified memory architecture, or UMA

Apple’s marketing and “floor plan” diagram of the chip make it look confusing.

20W USB-C “flat” charger

I was complaining about this on the last show with respect to the Home Pod mini

Ivor from the UK pointed out that their 20W USB-C Charger from Apple has the USB-C port on the bottom of the charger, so it sits more flush with the wall.

Belkin will have their “[20W USB-C PD Wall Charger](https://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F7U096-S/)” coming soon. USD $24.99

Other options:

90-degree wall adapters

Flat plug “pigtails”

Site tracks ‘Universal’ apps

There is a new site that can tell you which apps will run native on your new Apple Silicon Mac

[Is Apple silicon ready?](https://isapplesiliconready.com/)]

It will show which apps are running universal along with the version

Also shows if the app runs in Rosetta 2 or if it is not working or has issues

Has contact info to submit apps and info to the developer of the site.

[RoaringApps](https://roaringapps.com/apps), the original site, is still going strong too.

Resurrecting a 2006 Mac mini

I talk a lot about backup, but what happens when the system that facilitates your backup fails?

My trusty 2006 Intel Core Duo Mac mini’s hard drive failed after 14+ years of trusty service.

This system is connected to a 2nd Gen 4-bay Drobo and runs headless on my network using a [Bear Extender Turbo](https://www.bearifi.com/collections/popular-bearifi-products/products/bearextender-turbo-for-mac) 802.11ac WiFi adapter

This is the system I use for my local [ChronoSync](https://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/current.html) backups.

I have a number of scheduled jobs that will sync key folders and files on my MacBook Pro over to the Drobo connected to the Mac mini

One nice feature of ChronoSync is that you can have it ignore “deletions” on your source folders. So I sync say my “Maccast” working folder which has a folder for each episode. I can safely remove an episode folder on my local machine once it’s sync’d to the Drobo knowing that it’s backed up to another locally attached Drobo (also via ChronoSync) and to the remote Drobo.

My locally connected Drobo is also backed up to Backblaze for off site backup of my episodes.

I also have all of that data backed up to Time Machine, but obviously the deleted files will eventually drop off.

So I had to reboot the mini over the weekend and when it started back up I heard the repetitive “tick kathunk” that typically indicates a hardware failure of the drive.

Sure enough it was dead.

Luckily I have some old 2.5-inch drives lying around, including a 512GB Crucial SSD

I thought about this, but then realized this is “backup system” that I never look at and it really doesn’t need to be “faster”

I opted to use a 1TB WD drive salvaged from my old Transporter.

Teardown was fairly easy on this model with help from [iFixit](https://ifixit.com) and their awesome toolkits (great Holiday gift BTW)

The most difficult part of the recovery was finding a copy of MacOS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)

I thought I had a DVD, but I think I sold it.

I located a download, but had no blank DVDs anymore to burn to

I tried making a USB thumb drive, but the mini didn’t support USB booting (or I couldn’t get it to work)

I did have a Leopard DVD, but also discovered that the Mac mini SuperDrive had failed.

Luckily I had an external USB SuperDrive

Had to install Leopard, set it up, then copy the Snow Leopard ISO over the network and then could mount and install the upgrade from that.

In the end everything was back up and running and we’ll see if I can get a few more years out of this system.

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